Christian Education:
Are We Cultivating the Wrong Tree?

Murray Brown

When Adam and Eve stood in Eden they were in serious need of a Christian Education Programme. The future of the human race depended on their becoming established in the faith, yet they had no parents to raise them or church to instruct them.

Still, God had seemingly made provision for their education through the existence of a grand tree in the midst of the Garden: the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

At first glance this resource is one that many of us would like access to in our homes, churches and Bible Colleges. We would plant it in the backyard or position it indoors in a prominent place - perhaps alongside the pulpit or the professor’s lectern.

Yet this resource that so clearly educates the student in the rights and wrongs of life and ministry poses the greatest threat possible to the successful development of Christians and leaders of the next generation. It must be rooted out of our homes and places of learning and replaced with the resource that God truly did provide for His children: an intimate relationship with Him leading to fruit from the Tree of Life.

Let us examine four characteristics of Christian education according to the Tree of Life and contrast them with the characteristics of Christian education found beneath the other tree.

1. True Christian Education takes place in the context of principles rather than precepts

To often we are concerned with raising our children (and pastors?) with an understanding of what they must do.

“Do this...” and “Don’t do that...”, are our frequent instructions to our children that eventually end up in a multi volume document too weighty for them to carry through life. Consequently they ditch it in favour of the lightweight paperback entitled “If It Feels Good Do It”.

Yet to educate according to the Tree of Life means that we help them to construct a grid through which they filter all the many ethical and moral decisions that await them in life.

To do this our target becomes the child’s heart, not their behaviour. We instruct their heart by helping them to understand the reasons why an action is unacceptable. When a child is caught doing wrong, instead of being told “It’s wrong, don’t do it!”, they must be asked to identify why the action is wrong. If they don’t know they must be helped to understand the moral principle that governs the action.

To put it another way, rather than telling them which of the Ten Commandments they have broken, develop in your children an ability to understand how their action contravenes either (or both) of the two great principles that govern Christian life and conduct: to love God and to love others.

To not do so will produce young people who either abandon a faith of “thou shalt not’s” or (worse perhaps), pharisaic young Christians who are whitewashed tombs on the outside but full of spiritual death on the inside.

2. True Christian Education takes place in the context of “being” rather than “doing”

Implicit in Christian Education according to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, is the emphasis on getting people to do the right thing, rather than to be the right person. When we focus more on conduct than on character and more on actions than on attitudes we risk developing the outer person at the expense of the inner.

In theological terms, we put our efforts into cleaning up the flesh rather than crucifying it and learning to live according to the Spirit.

Not only does this have implications for our home life, it challenges the way we think about Christian education in the church.

If, when we speak of our Christian education programme, we have in mind a curriculum of information that must be taught to our young people, we are in serious trouble. Christian education is not a curriculum of information but a programme of formation. Information can be imparted in 45 minutes but formation requires an investment of time throughout the week.

Therefore it succeeds best when it involves the parents, who consistently role model and reinforce the information taught throughout the week as they spend time with their children, and as far as possible, with their children’s friends.

Even our institutes of training and education must reflect on this emphasis. Are we creating institutions that fill people with knowledge without regard for character? Are we more concerned with having them sit in a group and listen to a lecture than we are with sitting down with them one to one and reflecting together on issues related to their personal growth and development? Are we more concerned with assignments than with accountability? Are we more concerned with creating people who can do ministry than we are with creating people who can be ministers?

3. True Christian education takes place within the context of obedience

We live immersed in a culture that values knowledge accumulated through study and equates it with leadership and authority. The challenge for the church is to create a culture that values wisdom accumulated through obedience and equates it with leadership and maturity.

To do this our Christian education must carry with it an expectation of application. When something is taught, whether it be in the home or in a church setting, it must be followed up with some form of accountability or the one being taught will take the easy road of knowledge accumulation.

Although our education system is changing, much of what our young people learn at school is done so in a context that values memorisation and the absorption of knowledge that makes no moral demands upon the hearer. Is it any wonder then that Bible study for many is simply another intellectual exercise that encourages knowledge accumulation.

Our Bible studies must encourage participants to find at least one point of application and will provide accountability amongst group members in the following weeks.

Our Bible Colleges must provide frequent opportunities to implement what has been taught and to evaluate the student’s performance. Through obedience, true knowledge infused with spiritual life will flourish.

4. True Christian education takes place within the context of community

The family unit provides the best opportunity we have to experience Christian education. Any parent knows that lessons of sharing and caring are best taught to a toddler by introducing a sibling into the family! They know too that lessons of respect and obedience cannot be taught to a teenager as theory. They must be learnt in the context of reality.

In the context of this community we learn the lessons of life as we endeavour to live in close quarters with people whose preferences and personalities differ from ours. Here character and godliness can be learnt within the context of life.

The second best opportunity we have to experience Christian education is in the context of the church. Here we must rethink our programmes so that we move from passive learning to active learning.

Active learning involves more than the interchange of ideas and perspectives. It involves having participants experience the joys and frustrations of spending time together. We do not learn to love by reading a textbook or by listening to a sermon. Love is learnt when we spend time with the people we do not like.

In the same way our theological courses and programmes must be conducted within the context of community if they are to avoid simply becoming places where the knowledge of good and evil may be obtained. Issues of interpersonal disharmony among students becomes the real lessons from which future leaders are made.

A community where true Christian love and Life exist provides the best environment where issues of life and faith can be safely explored and settled upon.

Today, young people stand in serious need of a Christian Education programme. The future of the church (not to mention the human race) depends on these leaders of tomorrow becoming established in the faith. As parents and church leaders we have the awesome responsibility of providing instruction and imparting faith.

Which tree will we cultivate?

- Murray Brown is the Director of YouthTRAIN